Saturday, October 20, 2007

Friday, October 19, 2007

My daily news read the past 24 hours has left me scratching my head more often than not (I think just getting my haircut at Ft. Belvoir has something to do with it as well). I feel like I'm reading The Onion, but nope, it's real news. Wanted to share some news snippets with you:

From Reuters: "After a three-year hunt involving cutting edge technology and police on three continents, it was dogged detective work and a Thai transvestite that finally led officers to Canadian pedophile suspect Christopher Neil."

Now I don't want to bring light to the situation, since this guy has done some horrible things that will undoubtedly impact those he has victimized...I guess case in point, it was his Thai transvestite companion that ended up being key:

"His companion at the time of his arrest was a 25-year-old "katoey" -- the Thai word for transvestite or transsexual -- a friendship that proved key to the manhunt. ...Transvestites in Pattaya said they had seen him with a 25-year-old cross-dresser called Ohm.But the pair had already fled the eastern seaboard town, dubbed "The Old Whore of Asia" since the days of the Vietnam War, when American GIs would come in their thousands in search of euphemistically phrased "R&R"."

This next article, while not surprising, is still a little disturbing, in a totally different way:

From AP: "The Air Force is planning to fire at least five officers for violations of nuclear security rules that allowed armed missiles to be mistakenly loaded on a B-52 bomber and flown over the central part of the United States, officials said Thursday. ...The B-52 flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles mounted under one wing. A total of 36 hours passed before the missiles were properly secured, officials have said. ...The officials declined to say what procedures were not followed. But the mishandling in August would have required not one mistake — but a series of lapses by a number of people in order for armed weapons — as opposed to unarmed ones — to be inadvertently taken out of a storage bunker, mounted on the B-52, misidentified on a flight manifest and flown across the country for three hours without anyone noticing."

Let me highlight a few things: Five officers? Nobody noticed it was armed versus unarmed? Do they put them right next to each other? 36 hours passed before missiles were secured...well, that's because they weren't real, but if they were real, how long would they have taken? Series of lapses...can you imagine how many people routinely signed off on this particular training flight? You'd think the movies were exaggerating when people are sleeping on the job, but I guess they're not too far from the truth!

"The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars."

Ok, here's my last one. Anyone who's been following the ALCS and saw last night's Red Sox-Indians game knows how amazingly Josh Beckett pitched last night. An AP writer says, despite Kenny Lofton throwing a fit and his ex-girlfriend singing the national anthem, he still concentrated and threw a knockout game. I would think that would fuel the rage. Beckett's quote definitely supports that. I love it when us guys say we're (expletive) over somebody...are we, really?

From AP: "The Indians insisted it wasn't intentional, but the club invited country singer Danielle Peck, an ex-girlfriend of Beckett's, to sing the national anthem and "God Bless America" on the night her former beau took the mound. Peck was a fill-in for another singer, but her appearance didn't seem to break Beckett's concentration. "I don't get paid to make those (expletive) decisions," Beckett barked. "She's a friend of mine, that doesn't bother me at all. Thanks for flying one of my friends to the game so she could watch it for free.""

Friday, October 12, 2007

And I'm defiantly done being pregnant. But I'm not sure how ready I am to have Baby here. I was gonna post one of those counters, but I think it just makes me anxious to look at it, so I threw it out.

I've been spending my days organizing the house to make room for the little one. I've dug up Evan's old clothes and picked out the clothes that could also work for a little girl. Its made me nostalgic to think that Evan used to be such a little guy. I'm so excited to have a little, little baby in the house again. So sweet and small and helpless. And so great to watch her grow and make small little firsts milestones. Although, I'm wondering if those firsts milestones will seem not so great as watching Evan's firsts. "Oh, good job you rolled over! But your big brother was doing that weeks before you..." :)

This pregnancy has been going well compared to the first time. Besides that incident of placenta previa, its been good. I didn't have strange bumpy patches of dry skin on my hands and feet, no red itchy patches on my legs, and no swelling or puffiness on my hands, legs, or face. My only complaint this time around is how Baby seems to be growing up into my rib cage. Its not all that pleasant to be kicked in the ribs from the inside of your ribs. With that, I've got some weird muscle strain/tension that starts in the front of my ribs and extends around my right side to my back. So annoying to have a constant pain in your side. I got sick with a bad cough for almost a month, and every cough/sneeze caused SO much pain from muscle spasms! I'm so glad that it's gotten better, and I can handle the soreness over the inability to move my right arm.

So, now I'm just anxious over thinking about what labor and delivery is gonna be like this time around. Everyone says that the second time around is faster and easier. I hope they're right. 12 hours with Evan was enough for me. My OB is predicting that this one will come earlier than Evan did, he was 9 days early. And she thinks this one will be smaller. But I thought that babies got bigger with each pregnancy? We'll see I guess.

I can't really remember what the contractions felt like, but every time I feel Braxton Hicks (practice contractions) I get so worried that this is it! Because with Evan, I just woke up at 6 am with really steady strong contractions, and was in the hospital a hour and half later. My biggest thing is I hope I can manage the pain like last time. I didn't want to get an epidural last time until I felt like I needed it. And after 9 hours, my OB recommended that I should get it to rest and have energy to try again. So, I guess really my biggest worry is since each baby is different, I don't know what will happen this time, and that makes me so anxious!

Evan is slowly understanding that there are things set aside in the house just for Baby. And if I go back to rearrange the baby's things, he'll even tell me not to play with it cause it's for Baby! Evan's growing up so fast. It's most evident in his vocabulary and interests. He used to just throw puzzle pieces all over the house, and not have any care to put it in it's place. But lately, he'll actually sit there for a while taking them apart and put it back together on his own! And he makes me laugh, cause with each piece he puts in the right place, he'll cheer for himself with a hand waving above his head! He loves to sing nursery rhymes to himself. He'll be playing on his own, and you'll hear him singing to himself, even doing the actions too! And sometimes I've heard him making up his own songs. So cute!

What has he been saying lately? SO much. I can't even remember all the things he says that stuns me daily. Where does he learn these phrases/sentences? Its usually the phrases he says that apply to what's going on around him in the moment that surprises me, cause he's so aware of his surroundings, people's emotions, and changes.Every once in a while, he'll see us pulling out the laptop, he'll come running up asking, "I want podcast! I want PODCAST!" huh?! This kid is defiantly growing up in a different world that we did as kids.

Bedtime has become SO nice too. He'll say he doesn't want to go to bed, but he knows he's tired, and before I need to even fight him to go upstairs, he'll grab his "bear bear" or his train, and start heading upstairs. We'll go through our routine of brushing teeth, PJs, reading, prayer, and "tuck tuck" (tucking him into his big boy bed, then he'll tell me to turn off his bedside light, and if I don't leave, he'll push me and say, "goodnight, mommy!" Can you believe it?! This is a total 360 from what bedtime used to be like. I couldn't even stand by the door without reassuring him I was still there! He wouldn't let me leave the room, asking for water, more songs, or more hugs! He's such a big boy now. *sniff*

Well, that's about it for now. I've got some pics coming, from the last month, that I'll post soon. So stay tuned!

Lucy insisted on being out on the deck while we were out there too. It was time for her to get a bath anyway.

Poor Lucy, even I didn't want to be out there with Evan throwing water.

Doesn't our deck look fabulous? While Mark was in Japan/China, his brother David was staying over at our place for a few weeks and he scubbed and weatherproofed our deck for us. We've been needing to do it for years, but never got around to it. Now, I'm not afraid of Evan getting spinters in his feet when he runs around bear foot on it. You should have seen it before, it was gray and dirty and had patches of green algae growing on it. Now it looks like a brand new deck! Thanks David!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Lets clear up some confusion... Andrew likes and suggested the name Madeleine for our yet nameless little girl, but everyone seems to think that's the name we've decided on from the comments on a previous post. Well, we didn't, and sorry Andrew we're not naming her Madeline, cause there are WAY too many Madeline's running around here these days. So you can still use it to name your little girl!As for a name, I'm gonna have to wait to see what she looks like before deciding. I think it's so much harder to name a girl than a boy.